He said he walked into room
1026 on the 10th floor and found the two officers sitting with a man that was unknown to him.

While he was in the office a
stranger walked in saying that three more
people had been arrested linked to Timol.

The man left and then Gloy and
Van Niekerk followed asking Rodrigues to guard Timol.

Rodrigues said, “A few minutes
later Timol asked me to take him to the toilet. I thought it was a very
reasonable request so I got up from my chair and he also. Then went to the left of the table and the chair which Van
Niekerk was sitting on was half out of the table.

“I then pushed the chair back
into the table and my eyes were looking onto the chair. At the same moment, I
saw movement from the corner of my right eye, I looked up quickly and I saw
that Timol was quickly on the other side of the table. It all happened in a
split second.”

Rodrigues told the court that
he got up and looked out the window and
saw Timol’s body on the ground. He ran out of the office into the passage
screaming, “Timol jumped.”

His colleagues later all went
down to where the body landed and it was later rolled onto a blanket and placed
in a room in the building.

New evidence

On Tuesday, Rodrigues cut a
different figure, presenting new evidence that he had not presented to
Magistrate De Villiers during the initial inquest in 1972.

The inquest had ruled that
Timol’s death was a suicide.

However, his
family has always believed that Timol was killed by the security branch police
while he was in detention. The family requested that the inquest be reopened and the National Prosecuting
Authority agreed.

Cross examining Rodrigues,
state prosecutor advocate Torie Pretorius
asked Rodrigues if he was comfortable giving evidence before the court in 1972.

“Not at all…At the time when I
gave testimony at the magistrate’s court, I was coerced to say things that were
not correct in the statement and that made me be
unsettled in relation to how the events unfolded on the day in question.”

Rodrigues said he felt
uncomfortable because about four police officers wanted him to change his
statement. The officers that wanted to influence Rodrigues were in court while
Rodrigues testified in court.

“I felt intimidated because
they influenced me to say things that were not true. I cannot remember
everything but General Buys wanted me to testify that I had a fight with Timol
before he threw himself out of the window.

He wanted me to say we wrestled
but that was not true.”

Judge Billy Mothle asked
Rodrigues if he told the magistrate that he was intimidated, “No, I did not
because I was very intimidated by all the four officers there. They were always
there when I testified,” he said.

Rodrigues said the unit had a
lot of influence and he believed that if he told the magistrate that he was
pressured to lie, they could have caused him harm.

Judge Mothle asked Rodrigues why
after 46 years, he had not come forward to say that he had been intimidated.

“I did not have the opportunity
to come forward. You had 46 years to come forward to say this, why have you not
done so?”

“I don’t know,” said Rodrigues.

Judge Mothle asked Rodrigues if
he saw any injuries on Timol’s face or on the body and Rodrigues said he did
not see any injuries sustained on Timol’s body.

‘I didn’t torture anybody’

Rodrigues told
the court that he had heard that detainees had been tortured but he had never
seen it nor had he tortured detainees.

“I personally did not torture
anybody.”

Prestoius poked holes at
Rodrigues’ testimony.

“I put it to you that you could
not reach him is in direct contradiction from
your previous testimony when you said you read out for him and missed him
just.”

Rodrigues said it was possible
because it was 46 years ago and he might have tried to stretch his hand and
tried to reach him.

He said he did not participate
in the interrogation of Timol nor did he speak to him.

Prestoius asked Rodrigues how
did he know Timol’s name.

“You did not get introduced to
him, how did you know the name?”

Rodrigues said Gloy told him
that “this was Timol”.

Pretorius told
Rodrigues that he was presenting me
evidence to the court because that statement was not part of his evidence in
chief presented on Monday.

Judge Billy Mothle told the
court that he too was hearing that Rodrigues was told that the detainee was
Timol.

Mothle told Rodrigues that he
was giving evidence which he did not give to the magistrate during the initial
inquest.

Rodrigues at times struggled to
recall some of the details.

When asked about the three cups
of coffee and the impression that detainees drank coffee, Rodrigues said he
took the coffee into the office as requested.

“The three of them drank the
coffee.”

When asked about injuries on
Timol’s body, Rodrigues maintained that he did not see any injuries.

Pretorius told
Rodrigues that it was highly improbable that a big strong man like him could
not stop Timol.

“I’m describing it as best as I
can,” replied Rodrigues.

At time Prestorius told
Rodrigues that he was contradicting himself.

Pretorius said it
was completely improbable that Timol gave Rodrigues head start by asking to go
to the toilet.

Pretorius said
Rodrigues did not want to play open cards with the court.

Advocate Howard Varney after
questioning Rodrigues about Timol’s injuries as stated in the post mortem report, told him that he thought Varney says
Rodrigues has fabricated a version that is false.

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